Jonathan's Space Report

No 790 2021 Mar 25 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 64 continues under the command of Sergey Ryzhikov

On Feb 28 astronauts Rubins and Glover carried out spacewalk EVA-71 to begin installing solar array modification kits They used EMUs 3015 and 3009, with SAFER 13 and 18 The first mod kit was installed on solar array mast canister 2B, on the P6 truss segment Each 150 kg kit consists of a truss consisting of three lower struts (left, middle, right) and an `upper triangle' with a mounting bracket The new IROSA solar arrays, to be launched later this year, will be installed on the brackets

The work went more slowly than expected The 2B kit was completed but with some issues with the bolts The upper triangle for the 4B kit was assembled but not installed; it was tied to the 4B IEA and the work is expected to be completed during the next spacewalk Airlock depressurization was at 1101 UTC with hatch open at 1111 UTC; hatch was closed at 1811 UTC and the airlock began repressurization at 1816 UTC Rubins reported she had an ear blockage, so the repress was slower than usual and passed the 50 mbar level I use to mark EVA at 1818 UTC

On Mar 5 Rubins and Noguchi completed the work with EVA-72, installing the 4B mod kit on the 4B mast canister and tightening the bolts on the 2B kit The airlock was depressurized from 1133 to 1836 UTC; the hatch was open from 1336 to 1828 UTC

External Pallet 9 (EP9) was launched on the Japanese HTV 9 cargo ship in May 2020 and was installed on ISS on Jun 1 It now has nine old NiH batteries stowed on it Canadarm-2 unberthed the pallet from the MBS POA LEE mounting point on the mobile transporter on the station truss on Mar 11 around 0200 UTC, and released EP9 into space at 1330 UTC EP9 with the nine batteries has a mass of around 2600 kg It will remain in orbit for several years

On Mar 13 Glover (EMU 3009) and Hopkins (EMU 3006) left the Quest airlock on EVA-73 The airlock was depressurized at 1309 UTC and repressurized at 2003 UTC; the hatch was open from 1314 to 1959 UTC First the astronauts went to P6 and vented two old ammonia jumper cables that were used for the Early Ammonia Servicer system prior to its 2007 jettison One was moved to the Quest airlock The astronauts also installed a stiffener on the airlock thermal cover, and worked on the Bartolomeo connectors that gave trouble on an earlier spacewalk Cable routing to the CP9 camera position was completed and cable routing to the CP8 position was partially done

On Mar 14 the JRMS arm extracted J-SSOD-16 from the Kibo airlock for cubesat deployements At 1120 UTC J-SSOD-16 ejected OPUSAT-II (Osaka Prefectural University), GuaraniSat-1 (Paraguay), Maya-2 (Phillipines), Tsuru (Kyushu Tech), RSP-01 (RymanSat club) Later the same day it ejected Nichirin (WARP-01) for WarpSpace Co Ltd, Tsukuba; TAU-SAT-1 for Tel-Aviv University; and Sanko (STARS-EC) for Shizuoka Univ

On Mar 19 Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins entered Soyuz MS-17 and flew it from the Rassvet docking port to the Poisk docking port Undocking was at 1638 UTC and redocking at 1712 UTC

On Mar 22 around 0830 UTC the 50-kg-class Lawkanat-1 (MMSAT-1) satellite was quietly ejected from the J-SSOD-M2 deployer, with no announcement from JAXA Lawkanat-1 is a joint Hokkaido-Myanmar Earth imaging satellite whose deployment became controversial following the coup in Myanmar This satellite was launched to ISS on NG-15 and is similar to the Diwata satellites The satellite is owned by Myanmar, and the Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU) in Meiktila was involved in the project However, the Hokkaido University group issued a statement making excessively clear that only they controlled the satellite and that they would only give Myanmar data under very limited circumstances

As of Mar 25 the ISS visiting vehicle list was: Zvezda aft: Progress MS-14 Pirs: Progress MS-16 Poisk: Soyuz MS-17 Rassvet: - IDA-2/PMA-2: Dragon C207 (Resilience) IDA-3/PMA-3: - Unity nadir: Cygnus NG-15 (S S Katherine Johnson) Harmony nadir: -

YG-31

The Yaogan 31 hao 03 zu (YG-31 Group 03) cluster of three signals intelligence satellites was launched on Feb 24; 04 zu (Group 04) was launched on Mar 13 YG-31 Group 01 was launched in Apr 2018 and Group
02 was launched on Jan 29 this year

PSLV-C51

ISRO and New Space India Ltd launched a PSLV-DL from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Feb 28 The PS4 upper stage placed INPE/Brazil's 637 kg Amazonia-1 imaging satellite in a 750 km orbit, and then made two burns to lower orbit to 500 km where it deployed a set of small satellites:

Sindhu Netra is a 10 kg AIS (ship tracking) satellite built by PES University, Bengaluru for DRDO SDsat (Satish Dhawan Sat) is a 4 kg satellite from Space Kidz India Three 0 25U university cubesats which together comprise the UnitySat mission: JITSat (Jeppiaar Inst of Technology, Sriperumbudur); GHRCEsat (G H Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur); Sri Shakthi Sat (Sri Shakthi Inst of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore) SAI-1 Nanoconnect-2 is a 2U cubesat from UNAM (Mexico City); it will test a software-defined-radio unit from Space AI Inc (San Francisco) Spacebee 76 to 87, 0 25U IoT comms satellites for Swarm Tech (US)

Arktika-M

On Feb 28 Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1B from Baykonur with the first Arktika-M weather satellite The satellite will be placed in Molniya orbit In addition to weather imagers the 2200 kg satellite, using the Lavochkin Navigator bus, also carries a search and rescue communications relay payload

Starlink

Starlink launches were carried out on Mar 4 (mission V1 0-L17, KSC LC39A), Mar 11 (V1 0-L20, Canaveral LC40), Mar 14 (V1 0-L21, KSC LC39A) and Mar 24 (V1 0-L22, Canaveral LC40) Each launch placed 60 Starlinks in orbit The first stages landed successfuly on the droneships; the Mar 11 launch used the JRTI and the others used the OCISLY The second stages were deorbited except for the Mar 4 launch where the stage remained in orbit

Soyuz cluster launch

On Mar 22 GK Launch Services carried out a Soyuz-2-1a launch from Baykonur with the South Korean CAS500-1 imaging satellite and a cluster of small satellites The satellites were placed in 2300 LTDN sun-synch orbit The Fregat upper stage went to a 494 x 509 km orbit to deploy CAS500-1, then made two further burns to go to a 579 x 604 km orbit to deploy four GRUS weather satellites for Japan's AXELSPACE, and then two further burns to a lower 535 x 560 km orbit for deployment of the remaining satellites: ELSA-d, the Astroscale experiment which will release a target satellite and recapture it using a magnetic plate; Najm-1, an imaging satellite for King Abdul Aziz City of Sci and Tech built by LinaSpace of Virginia; Unisat-7, a satellite from Rome's Gauss srl which will release a set of picosatellites; DMSat-1, a UTIAS_SFL Nemo-V1 class small imaging satellite for MBRSC in the UAE; and a set of cubesats in deployers from Aerospace Capital (Moscow) and ISILaunch (Delft)

The first Aerospace Capital 4 x 3U deployer has ChallengeOne for Telnet Holding (Tunis), Lacunasat-2b for Lacuna Space (Harwell, UK), 3B5GSat for Sateliot (Barcelona) and three 1U sats: GRB-Alpha (TU Kosice), WildTrackCube (Roma-Sapienza), and KSU-Cubesat (King Saud U )

The second Aerospace Capital deployer has the 6U OrbiKraft-Zorkiy for Sputniks (Moscow), and the 3U NIU VsHE-DZZ for the VsHE economics college (Moscow) and Sirius-DZZ for OTs Sirius (Sochi)

ISILaunch has four 12U deployers The first one has Kepler-6 and 7 (@KeplerComms, Toronto); 2nd has ADELIS-SAMSON 1 and 2 (Technion U, Haifa); 3rd has ADELIS-SAMSON-3 and a mass dummy All these are 6U The final ISILaunch deployer has NanoSatC-Br-2 (INPE-CRS, Santa Maria, 2U); KMSL (Chosun U, Gwangju, 3U); Hiber-3 (Hiber, Delft); Beesat 5,6,7,8 (TU Berlin, 4 x 0 25U); & CANYVAL-C (Yonsei U, Seoul) which is a 2U+1U formation flying expt; the 2U is called Pumbaa and the 1U Timon

Unisat-7 from GAUSS srl (Rome) will deploy several small subsatellites: BCCSAT-1 (Bangkok Christian Coll, 1U); FEES (GPAP, Gussago, Italy, 0 3U); DIY-1 (DIYSat, Buenos Aires, 1P); SMOG-1 (BUTE Budapest, 1P); and STECCO (Roma Sapienza, 6P) A 1P sat is a 0 05m cube

OSIRIS-REX

The OSIRIS-REX asteroid probe left asteroid Bennu's Hill sphere on Oct 22, and at the time it was planned to send it straight back to Earth It's now been decided to do a final flyby to inspect the asteroid's state following the sampling and departure On Jan 14, at a distance from Bennu of 2194 km, O-REX fired its engines to return towards Bennu and at about 0200 UTC Mar 25 it returned to the Hill sphere (gravitational sphere of influence) The flyby will be on Apr 6 at a distance of 4 km The departure burn to head back to Earth is now scheduled for May 10

Errata

In the previous issue I reported 36 SpaceBEE on Transporter 1 ESPA-port B2; there were only 24 The other 12 SpaceBEEs on the launch were on ION-SVC, as noted further down in the list Those SpaceBEEs had apparently not yet been deployed from ION-SVC as of Mar 24 Also, the Dove satellites on port C1 are Flock 4s, not Flock 4c - sorry about that typo

Progress MS-16 docked with Pirs on Feb 17, not Feb 16

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes

Feb 1 0815? Test payload? Shang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Tech F01 F01578 -6300?x 10?x 97? Feb 2 2045 Kosmos-2549? Soyuz-2-1b Plesetsk LC43/4 Sigint 08A S47546 240 x 899 x 67 1 Feb 4 0619 Starlink 1782 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 09 S47548- 251 x 292 x 53 0 Starlink 1806 ) S47607 Starlink 1909 ) Starlink 1938 ) Starlink 1940 ) Starlink 1951 ) Starlink 1953-1971) Starlink 1975-1982) Starlink 1984 ) Starlink 1986-1991) Starlink 1993-2008) Starlink 2021 ) Starlink 2023-2025) Feb 4 1536 Tongxin Jishu Shiyan 6 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Early Warn? 10A S47613 195x x 35811 x 28 5
Feb 8 1232 Flock 4s-48 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EJ S47617 523 x 541 x 97 5 Feb 10 1022 Flock 4s-45 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EP S47688 523 x 541 x 97 5 Feb 13 1200 Flock 4s-46 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EK S47684 523 x 541 x 97 5 Feb 14 1027 Flock 4s-47 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EL S47685 523 x 541 x 97 5 Feb 15 0445 Progress MS-16 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 11A S47618 190 x 221 x 51 6 Feb 16 0400 Starlink 1528 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 12 S47667- 257 x 282 x 53 0 Starlink 1609 S47680
Starlink 1645 Starlink 1655 Starlink 1669 Starlink 1704 Starlink 1761 Starlink 1972-1974 Starlink 1983 Starlink 1985 Starlink 1992 Starlink 2009-2010 Starlink 2012-2016 Starlink 2018-2020 Starlink 2022 Starlink 2026-2028 Starlink 2030-2033 Starlink 2035-2044 Starlink 2051-2054 Starlink 2056-2060 Starlink 2062 Starlink 2064-2067 Starlink 2078 Starlink 2083 Starlink 2090-2091 Starlink 2095 Feb 16 1006 Flock 4s-44 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EM S47686 520 x 538 x 97 5 Feb 17 0956 Flock 4s-43 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EN S47687 520 x 538 x 97 5 Feb 20 1736 S S Katherine Johnson ) Antares 230+ Wallops Pad 0A Cargo 13A S47689 170 x 320 x 51 7 ThinSat 2A ) Tech 13 A09696 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2B ) Tech 13 A09697 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2C ) Tech 13 A09698 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2D ) Tech 13 A09699 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2E ) Tech 13 A09700 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2F ) Tech 13 A09701 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2G ) Tech 13 A09702 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2H ) Tech 13 A09703 170?x 320?x 51 6 ThinSat 2I ) Tech 13 A09704 170?x 320?x 51 6 Feb 18 0946 Flock 4s-42 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06EQ S47612 520 x 538 x 97 5 Feb 19 1011 Flock 4s-41 ION-SCV 2, LEO Imaging 06 Feb 24 0222 Yaogan 31 hao 03 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Sigint 14A S47691 1090 x 1097 x 63 4 Yaogan 31 hao 03 zu 02 xing ) Sigint 14B S47692 1090 x 1097 x 63 4 Yaogan 31 hao 03 zu 03 xing ) Sigint 14C S47693 1090 x 1097 x 63 4 Feb 26 0454 Amazonia-1 ) PSLV-DL Satish Dhawan FLP Imaging 15A S47699 741 x 757 x 98 5 Sindhu Netra ) Tech Nanoconnect-2 ) Tech 15C S47701 491 x 506 x 97 5 JITSat ) Tech GHRCEsat ) Tech Sri Shakthi Sat) Tech SDSAT ) Tech 15W S47721 498 x 511 x 97 5 Spacebee-76 ) Comms to ) Spacebee-87 ) Comms Feb 28 0655 Arktika-M No 1 Soyuz-2-1B Baykonur LC31 Weather 16A S47719 1027 x 39751 x 63 3 Mar 4 0825 Starlink 2068 ) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 17A S47222 259 x 280 x 53 1 Starlink 2107 ) Starlink 2116 ) Starlink 2125-2126) Starlink 2129 ) Starlink 2131-2132) Starlink 2140-2144) Starlink 2146-2150) Starlink 2152 ) Starlink 2154 ) Starlink 2156-2164) Starlink 2168-2172) Starlink 2174-2185) Starlink 2189 ) Starlink 2192-2198) Starlink 2210-2213) Starlink 2223 ) Mar 11 0813 Starlink 2257 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 18A S47787 258 x 278 x 53 1 Starlink 2314-2315) Starlink 2319 ) Starlink 2322 ) Starlink 2334 ) Starlink 2338 ) Starlink 2341 ) Starlink 2347 ) Starlink 2373 ) Starlink 2377 ) Starlink 2379-2396) Starlink 2399-2403) Starlink 2406-2411) Starlink 2413 ) Starlink 2415-2416) Starlink 2419-2420) Starlink 2422-2427) Starlink 2429 ) Starlink 2431-2446) Starlink 2453 ) Starlink 2456 ) Mar 11 1330? EP9 ISS, LEO Garbage scow 9867RZ S47853 417 x 422 x 51 6 Mar 11 1751 Shiyan 9 Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang LC201 Tech/ 19A S47851 250 x35836 x 19 5 Mar 13 0219 Yaogan 31 hao 04 zu 01 xing) Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Sigint 20A S47854 1092 x 1098 x 63 4 Yaogan 31 hao 04 zu 02 xing) Sigint 20B S47855 1090 x 1096 x 63 4 Yaogan 31 hao 04 zu 03 xing) Sigint 20C S47856 1090 x 1096 x 63 4 Mar 14 1001 Starlink 2258 ) Falcon 9 KSC LC39A Comms 21
Starlink 2280 ) Starlink 2291 ) Starlink 2293 ) Starlink 2304 ) Starlink 2310 ) Starlink 2320-2321) Starlink 2323-2324) Starlink 2326-2333) Starlink 2336-2337) Starlink 2339-2340) Starlink 2342-2346) Starlink 2348-2372) Starlink 2374-2376) Starlink 2378 ) Starlink 2397 ) Starlink 2398 ) Starlink 2405 ) Mar 14 1120 Hirogari ) ISS, LEO Tech 9867SA? GuaraniSat-1) Tech 9867SB? Maya-2 ) Tech 9867SC? Tsuru ) Tech 9867SD? RSP-1 ) Tech 9867SE? Mar 14 1150 Nichirin ISS, LEO Tech 9867SF? Mar 14 1430 TAU-SAT-01 ISS, LEO Tech 9867SG? Mar 14 1500 Sanko ISS, LEO Tech 9867SH? Mar 22 0607 CAS500-1 Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Imaging 22A S47932 495 x 510 x 97 4 GRUS 1B Imaging 22B S47933 579 x 605 x 97 7 GRUS 1C Imaging 22C S47934 579 x 605 x 97 7 GRUS 1D Imaging 22D S47935 579 x 605 x 97 7 GRUS 1E Imaging 22E S47936 579 x 605 x 97 7 ELSA-d Tech 22 DMSat-1 Imaging 22 Najm-1 Imaging 22 Unisat-7 Tech 22 Kepler-6 Comms 22 Kepler-7 Comms 22 NanoSatC-Br 2 Sci 22 KMSL Mgrav 22 CANYVAL-C Tech 22 Hiber 3 Comms 22 Beesat 5 Tech 22 Beesat 6 Tech 22 Beesat 7 Tech 22 Beesat 8 Tech 22 SAMSON 1 Tech 22 SAMSON 2 Tech 22 SAMSON 3 Tech 22 Lacunasat 2b Tech 22 3B5GSAT Comms 22 ChallengeOne Tech 22 GRB-Alpha Astron 22 WildTrackCube-SIMBA Comms 22 KSU-Cubesat Tech 22 OrbiKraft-Zorkiy Tech 22 NIU VsHE-DZZ Imaging 22 Sirius-DZZ Imaging 22 Mar 22 0830 Lawkanat 1 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867SJ Mar 22 2230 Black Sky Global Electron Mahia LC1A Imaging 23F? Centauri 3 Comms 23 Myriota 7 Comms 23 RAAF M2 A/B Comms 23 Gunsmoke-J Comms 23 Veery Hatchling Tech 23 Mar 24 0828 Starlink 1647 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 24A Starlink 2087 Starlink 2153 Starlink 2216 Starlink 2218 Starlink 2226 Starlink 2229 Starlink 2239 Starlink 2243 Starlink 2254 Starlink 2259-2268 Starlink 2270-2273 Starlink 2277-2279 Starlink 2281-2290 Starlink 2292 Starlink 2294-2303 Starlink 2305-2309 Starlink 2311-2313 Starlink 2316-2318 Starlink 2325

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target

Feb 3 RV Ghaznavi Somniani? Test 80? Arabian Sea? Feb 4 ABM Target B-611? Taiyuan Test 200? Urumqi
Feb 4 Interceptor DF-21? Urumqi? Interceptor 100? Takla Makan Feb 5 0905 OS-X6B OS-X6B Jiuquan? Test 300 Jiuquan? Feb 9 2330 USN RV Trident II Sub, 76W 28N Op Test 1000? S Atlantic Feb 24 0749 GT237GM Minuteman III Vandenberg LF10 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein Feb 27 HE RV Zulfiqar Sanaa? Weapon 150? Riyadh Mar 3 Chem release Terr Terr Oriole Wallops Ionosphere 300? Atlantic Mar 12 1345 SOUREX RH-560 Mk III Satish Dhawan Atmosphere 300? Bay of Bengal

------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: https://www planet4589 org/jsr html | | Back issues: https://www planet4589 org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: https://www planet4589 org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

JSR mailing list JSR@www planet4589 org http://www planet4589 org/mailman/listinfo/jsr

To unsubscribe, email jsr-leave@www planet4589 org